Chinese toddler becomes internet star after mooning prime minister

A toddler from Inner Mongolia has become an instant internet sensation after
baring all to China’s incoming premier, Li Keqiang, on national television.

9:25AM GMT 07 Feb 2013

The apparently unscripted moment came on Sunday as Mr Li visited a shantytown in the northern Chinese city of Baotou during a three-day propaganda tour designed to show the government’s determination to help the poor.

Keen to witness the hardships of slum-life first-hand, Mr Li popped into a cramped shack belonging to Gao Junping, an impoverished 56-year-old farmer.

But Mr Gao appears not to have been warned of his esteemed visitor’s plans.

On discovering that one of China’s most important men was at his doorstep – accompanied by a camera crew from state-run CCTV – Mr Gao is thought to have stashed his potentially distracting and semi-naked son inside a cupboard.

Millions of Chinese television viewers would have been none the wiser but for the child’s decision to abandon the cupboard mid-interview.

As the cameras rolled and Mr Li plied his startled and tearful host with questions about life in the shantytown, the toddler pushed open the cupboard’s doors and plunged onto the bed on which his father – and the vice-premier – were sat.

The child’s naked cameo was subsequently broadcast across China, earning him the nickname “guang pigu nanhai” or “the bare-bottomed boy”.